


Awkward

by Taua



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Awkward Situation, Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Love, Gen, Guilt, Hospital, Medical Shock, Pain, RoyAi (hinted), Smooth Talking, Worry, Wounded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 18:05:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taua/pseuds/Taua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Though Lust was reduced to a pile of ash, they are still not out of danger - and at the hospital, new facets of them come to surface.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awkward

“I'll be fine... Go get... Havoc-” He interrupted himself with a pained groan, eyes pressing tightly shut at the sharp pain on his side.

“But Colonel-” Alphonse hesitantly began, his voice shaking a bit with insecurity.

“ _I'm alright_ ,” Roy snapped, forcing one of his eyes open so he could glare. “Just lost... some blood. Havoc... _Jean_....” Again he had to cut himself off, shivering under the heavy pain.

“Al, let's go,” Riza suddenly threw in while getting up from her kneeling position. Panting hard Roy looked up at her – his sight was getting blurred from the loss of blood, yet he noticed how her cheeks were slightly damp while her eyes showed only determination. Sighing he smiled up at her, as grateful as he could when every fiber of his being was aching.

They looked at each other for a moment longer, then she finally rushed towards the corridors, Alphonse just a heartbeat behind her. The echo of their steps was loud in Roy's ears, making them ring uncomfortably. Breathing hard he pressed his hands over the large wound on his side. He was moments from passing out, but he had to stay awake. Losing conscience now that he was alone could get fairly dangerous.

Every time his eyes slid close, Roy tore them wide open again. His mouth was open, yet he felt like slowly suffocating; the pain was getting stronger and exhaustion pulled on his being. And the heat... with every passing minute it felt like the room was warming further up, to the point were he was burning alive.

Damn. He was getting either an infection or shock.

Gritting his teeth, Roy forced himself to stay as relaxed as possible. All he had to do was keep going until help arrived. Riza was probably already getting a doctor – she was professional like that. She'd know what to do.

Riza, with the determination in her eyes...

Shivering Roy curled together on the floor, fighting against fainting with the last remainders of his force.

~*~

Riza hurried through the corridors and back into the basement. She left Alphonse with Jean since he was unconscious and moved on to get a few doctors. Surprisingly, when she called up Fuery with a phone inside the lab, she learned that some emergency units were already on the way. Unclear who send them, but for the moment she had to accept the risk coming along with it. Friend or foe, they needed a doctor.

With help on the way, Riza was quick to decide what to do next. There was still another wounded who needed immediate care.

By the time she was back underground, the horrible stench of Berry's rotten flesh and Lust's burned skin had spread out to the entire corridor. For a moment she felt the urge to gag, but quickly caught a hold of herself again. Roy was still close by and badly injured, despite claiming Jean needed help more urgently.

It didn't take long to come back to the white hall – but what Riza saw upon entering made her blood run cold.

On the floor, Roy laid tightly curled together, his body jerking uncontrolled and his face towards the floor, the hand laying close to his head closed to a fist. Obviously he had cramps all over his body and his breathing was both shaky and heavy.

Riza bolted to his side even before she had the urge to call out. Immediately she dropped to her knees, hands hovering unsure above Roy's body for a moment. Even without actually touching him she noticed how hot he felt.

“Colonel...” Carefully she laid her arms around his upper body, turning him onto his back. He was heavy and his sickly pale face grimaced in pain, yet she tried sitting him up the best she could. The shivering was uncontrolled and he bathed in his own sweat; Riza should have never left him back like that, knowing better than to believe him when he said he'd be fine. “You idiot,” she gasped, quickly going through her options. Being a sniper she knew a lot about weapons, but her medical education was kept to the basics. Right now, it seemed like way to little overall.

What had happened...

Roy had lost a lot of blood. Then he had cauterized the large wound by himself. Lastly he had walked all the way to the hall and fought a homunculus to death. Probably he suffered some kind of shock, judging from the heavy reactions he currently showed and the whiteness of his face.

Trembling with stress, Riza pulled him closer against her, trying to keep him warm. It was horrible to look at his face and hear his raged breathing, but she had to be strong – for both of them.

“Help's on the way,” she murmured over and over as the minutes ticked by, like a desperate prayer.

~*~

The eyelids trembled a little before Jean parted them, a faint groan rumbling through his chest as he awoke. It took him a moment to orientate, figuring out where he was. Then slowly his memory came back, bits by bits. His expression darkened considerably when he thought about the encounter. Not necessarily because he had to fight a somewhat-girlfriend, but more because of the heavy wounds they carried out of it. His body still felt numb, probably from the medication.

Suddenly he heard a splashing, like something was dipped into a bowl of water and then pulled out again. Focusing more, Jean also noticed a heavy panting and rustling of clothes.

Curious he turned his head on the pillow, looking over to his left. There was a bed next to his, plain white, and he watched as a blond woman leaned across the upper half of it, hands close to the headboard. It took him a minute to recognize it was Riza – she was dressed in civil clothing and wore her hair open – and another one to assume Roy was laying next to him.

Even with his slightly blurry sight he clearly saw the worry and pain on Riza's face. It was unsettling to see her like that... She looked depressed, nothing alike the controlled, observant woman she usually was. Things must have been really nasty to change her like that.

When Roy groaned and trashed particularly hard under the sheets, she jerked into action, her teeth biting down hard on her bottom lip when all she could do was stare at him. Her hands trembled a little when she took the wet clothe from his forehead and dipped it back into the bowl. As she laid it back, she finally noticed Jean was awake and observing them.

“Havoc...” Riza called, relief reflecting in her eyes for a split second. “Good to see you awake. How are you feeling?”

“Like crap,” he responded, hissing when he felt a wave of pain in his abdomen despite being mostly numb. “What happened?” Jean looked straight at her, having other questions in mind but unable to voice them. He couldn't possibly ask Riza directly about Roy... not after the look on her face.

She tensed briefly up and a few minutes ticked by before she began speaking. “You were stabbed by the homunculus, but the Colonel managed to cauterize your wounds and stop the bleeding in time. He was also the one eliminating the homunculus when it came after Alphonse and-”

Suddenly Roy released something akin a shout, his body jerking and twisting on the mattress. Riza instantly jumped into action, interrupting her report and instead took one of his hands in hers, squeezing down tightly. The touch seemed to ease some of Roy's distress; in a while he was calmer, murmuring words too low for Jean to understand from his side of the room. However he wasn't completely dumb – he had realized Roy was asleep and probably feverish. The sudden outburst was likely related to a nightmare he was having.

And then, Jean witnessed something which made him feel more than uncomfortable.

Riza had tears in her eyes, almost large enough to spill over. “I'm sorry,” she whispered, her fingers clenching down harder around his hand. “It's all... If I hadn't been there, he'd have never exhausted himself like that...!” Her head lowered, her face hiding behind a few blond locks. “The wound... he almost... almost...!”

“Lieutenant Hawkeye,” Jean called out, wincing when her upper body started heaving. He never liked seeing women in pain and seeing Riza in such an intimate, sensitive state just felt wrong to him. He wasn't supposed to witness such a private scene.

“I left him alone like this... Instead of protecting him, I was the one he had to save...” she gasped, sinking further and further together on the chair. Riza didn't know to whom she was speaking to – maybe she was desperately trying to apologize to Roy or madly confessed to Jean. Either way, all she sought to do was to lift a little of the massive weight off her shoulders before it crushed her completely.

“Hawkeye...” Jean repeated, clearing his throat when he felt more and more uncomfortable. “Ri... Elizabeth.”

Upon hearing her code-name, Riza looked briefly up, her eyes still wet.

If he had the force, Jean would have lifted an arm and scratched his head, he felt so out of place. Damn, he didn't even dare calling her by her first name, he was so absolutely unfitting for this task.

“Listen... it's not your fault,” he started, sighing at how awkward his own voice sounded. Actually, everything felt awkward, most of all that he was saying this to Riza-fucking-Hawkeye. “I was injured first. Sola- I mean, the homunculus' heart is a Philosopher's Stone. He tried getting it to heal me and then got stabbed by the enemy before he could even use it.” Jean turned his head so he was facing the ceiling, unable to look Riza in the eye. “You see... if I had been more careful, the Colonel would have never got wounded to begin with. There's no need for you to ask for forgiveness when I'm the one to blame.”

She sniffled softly, the noise almost unheard.

“Now clean your face. Such pretty women shouldn't wear tears,” Jean smoothly commented, feeling slightly better, or at least less awkward. “Besides, if he ever finds out you cried because of me, he'll fry me on the spot. Or worse, make sure no girl in all Amestris will ever date me again.”

“The world is made of more than women, Second Lieutenant,” Riza commented, her voice controlled once again.

“You can say that since you _are_ a woman and therefore control all men!” Jean complained, painfully aware of the effect females had on him. As soon as they looked sad or hurt, he'd do the most insane things just to make it all good again. Even women who had almost more balls than Jean himself twisted him up just as they pleased, as Riza had just shown him.

She released a small laugh. “I doubt any woman can control _all_ men,” Riza commented before rising from the chair. “You must be thirsty. Should I get you some water?”

“That would be fantastic,” he replied, feeling indeed how dry his throat was. Jean didn't thank her as she left, aware it was her reserved way to thank him for his words. He could live with that; he rather had himself a strict, distant Hawkeye than the hurt woman he just happened to see.

The door had already closed when he heard Roy breathe out loudly.

Turning his head around, Jean could see his profile – eyes closed and a small smile on his lips. “Great job, Havoc,” he stated with such a peaceful voice Jean felt his skin crawl.

“You've been awake?!” he shouted, almost feeling like leaping out the bed and strangling Roy to death. “You damn...! _You_ should have said something!”

“Talking to Hawkeye would have been too awkward,” Roy lightly answered, hissing when his wound throbbed with pain.

“Useless coward,” Jean growled before pressing harder into his bed in anger. It was one thing getting taken advantage of by Roy, but this time it was beyond all sorts of comfort zone. _They_ were the ones knowing each other almost all of their lives! He was just the poor second lieutenant whose very bad luck with women got him tangled up in all sorts of awkward bullshit.

“Thank you, Jean,” Roy threw in, out of the blue. He popped one eye open and stared at him through the corner of his eye.

 

“Never mind,” Jean quietly murmured in response.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> More and more and more xD Remember the scene in the hall? Where Roy showed his abs? Ofc you do. The entire fight against Lust had been interesting to me, actually one of my fav fights of the entire series, and so this little idea came up in my mind. 
> 
> I kind of liked working with Jean in this. I think he would be one who'd try to cheer sad women up, then again he's driven by his own guilt. After all, he had surely been conscious by the time Roy got the stone and must have noticed how he got badly injured. 
> 
> Haaaaa. Me gusta. I should write other stuff, but Roy and Riza are all over my brain atm. 
> 
> MORE to come!


End file.
